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Your View: Letters to the editor (Oct. 5)

Posted:
10/05/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

Opposed sale

Las Cruces officials decided to sell the Arc building, which now is the only city-run center for people with special needs in our community. This building is in need of major repairs that the city has postponed the entire time that they have owned it. This is not something that was supposed to be done by the developmentally delayed people or their supporters, just as the youth that use Meerscheidt are not responsible for the upkeep of that building nor are the seniors who use the buildings for their city-run programs responsible to raise money to maintain their public spaces.

To me this is about whether to keep this space, which is the only public space in this city that is set aside for people with cognitive disabilities in the public arena instead of owned by a private company. While AngelCare is a good provider of services and said that they will keep the space accessible to this population, they are a company, not a public entity. I haven't mentioned the loss of funds in this sale, nor that the original intention of the city taking over this space from a non-profit organization originally was to keep this center accessible to the public.

I will mention, though, how challenging it is for this population, with their unique needs and character, to blend in with other populations, which primarily are recipients of the funding of the city's public centers, i.e. the elderly and youth.

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While it is important to nurture integration, it is the intention of the Arc to provide a safe place for the cognitively impaired population to interact and socialize without having to receive any of the harassment and negative attention they receive in integrated settings.

SARAH HEARTSONG

Peak Developmental Services

Las Cruces

Spilled milk

With all the wringing of hands over loss of accreditation for the local nursing college, how come hardly a tear was shed when not so long ago NMSU's world acclaimed journalism department lost its accreditation?

Just compare the barrage of support for increasing funds for athletics, yet not even a whimper over the downward spiral of the journalism department and its vanished accreditation.

Instead of crying over spilled milk, local reigning pundits might have done far better by taking a leaf from the successful agenda of our neighboring journalism school at Arizona State University.

A Sept. 20 item in the Las Cruces Sun-News announced that the Phoenix university has just won two awards totaling a whopping $8.2 million - all earmarked for expanding journalistic horizons and skills in coverage of business and economics.

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